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Savvy shopping, seasonal eating and thrifty recipes. Spend less on groceries and enjoy better tasting, easy to prepare meals your friends and family will love – all on a budget.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Mocha Cake

I totally LOVE coffee! My day is incomplete without at least one cup. I did a dance of joy when the email from coffee experts Lavazza arrived in my inbox asking if I was up for a challenge to create lots of coffee related recipes, thankfully I was at home LOL It took all of 2 seconds for me to reply and get signed up to take part in the campaign.

Lavazza are sponsoring the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament for the second year in a row, and have created the Coffee Set Match Blogger Challenge to celebrate the occasion.

This means that a group of food bloggers have all been sent Lavazza Favola Plus Modo Mio coffee machines to play with endlessly to make coffees and create recipes using the delicious coffees.

My machine was delivered on a Friday morning, great timing for a caffeine boost! I spent ages making different coffees, playing with the milk frother/hot water dispenser, and experimenting with the different strengths and sizes of coffee the machine produces. By Saturday afternoon I had finished faffing and got down to some recipe creation.

Here's the first one:

Mocha Cake

This is a fab bung-it-all-in low faff cake that tastes delicious with a cuppa. I decided to use Lavazza Diviniamente coffee in this cake because it's a rich full-bodied coffee with a hint of chocolate, perfect for a Mocha Cake.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Lightly grease two deep 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins and either use bought liners or line the bases with non-stick baking paper.

Make a 90ml espresso shot and then add the milk and cocoa powder. Mix everything together well until it forms a lump-free mixture.

Put all the rest of the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer or a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer or stand mixer to mix everything together until it's combined. Don't over beat the mixture.

Divide the cake mixture between the prepared cake tins and gently level the surface.

Bake for 25–30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cakes are beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Take the cakes out of the oven, turn them out of the cake tin and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the cakes are cool whip the cream and then stir in the cooled espresso and the grated chocolate. Use half the cream to fill the cake and spread the remainder over the top. Grate over more dark chocolate.

You can also enter the draw to win one of the fabulous Lavazza Wimbledon Prizes in their giveaway! Just look out for promotional cups on take away Lavazza coffees, or enter online at: http://promotion.wimbledon.lavazza.com/

Nah! Just pottering about LOL I bow to your greater baking brilliance, you've written a book about it and everything! Hope your machine arrives soon, it is a fab gadget, I love having cafe coffee on tap :)